Khachaturian 2nd Movement - the learning process

I want to talk about my learning process for the 2nd Movement of Khachaturian’s Flute Concerto.

Today I played it at a performance class at the University of Leeds. It is still in the early stages of learning as I’ve only spent about 3 hours practising it so far, and it made me consider my learning process (with this movement). I am going to share some of that with you.

The first thing I did was listen to the whole concerto - this helped me put it in context. Also I am learning the whole thing too. Then I started listening to the second movement on repeat. I listened to different versions and settled on one favourite - played by Emmanuel Pahud. This helped me to start to understand the overall shape of the movement, the feel of it and also to know what the orchestra does throughout (or in the case of today, the piano reduction). I also listened to many other aspects of the recorded performances, including phrasing, dynamics, breathing, rubato and general rhythm. This is something I want to memorise, so listening to it over and over really helps with this. I find that reading from the sheet music restricts the amount of freedom of expression I have, therefore the less I rely on it the better. To me it is an aid, but not one that should get between me and my audience.

The second part of my practise (which goes alongside the first) is actually playing it. Because it is a slow movement, it has required only a small amount of learning the notes and almost no ‘chunking’ or practising at a slower speed. What I have had to practise in the 3 hours I have spent on it, is tone, breathing, phrasing, dynamics and figuring out where I need to support the most, where I need to adjust my embouchure and practise jumping up to high notes and making them sound as effortless as possible (I’m not there on this yet).

Today’s performance class was recorded (this recording was done on my phone). So my next step was to listen to my recording with the score and mark on it exactly what I want more of, less of, where I am not happy with something like my tone or dynamics, where to support more and where I need to adjust my embouchure more. It also allowed me to consider the balance with the piano. So now my score is marked up with things like:

‘Softer’ - bar 28

‘Not too loud’ - bar 32

‘Clear articulation’ - bar 49

‘More accelerando’ - bar 61

‘Support and open’ - bar 93

I have made around 100 markings on my music from today’s performance class, which will now allow me to go through it and practise all these bits in detail so that next time I play and record it, I can see if they have worked and what to work on next.

Of course there is also the input I get from my teachers, but what I have described is my independent learning process on this movement so far.

I hope that this has helped you with understanding the practise process for something like this, and I am also very open to hearing suggestions about my playing!